More from NBC

An Emergency Response Team member walks on the roof of a house in Moncton, New Brunswick, on June 5, 2014, as the search for a heavily armed gunman suspected to have shot three Mounties dead and injured continued.

Suspect in Mounties' Slaying Captured in Canada: RCMP

By Gil Aegerter

The gunman sought in the shooting deaths of three Mounties was captured early Friday in eastern Canada after a nearly 30-hour manhunt, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

Police identified the suspect as Justin Bourque, 24, who allegedly killed the three officers and injured two other Mounties on Wednesday in Moncton, a city in the province of New Brunswick.

He was captured at 12:10 a.m. Friday local time (11:10 a.m. ET) without incident in a wooded area of Moncton, said RCMP Superintendent Marlene Snowman. No guns were found on him at the time, although firearms were retrieved nearby, she added.

Bourque was charged Friday with three counts of first-degree murder, and two counts of attempted murder.

A Moncton woman told CTV News that she watched the capture in her backyard.

Michelle Thibodeau said she was in her home when an armored police vehicle came slowly past, then officers jumped out and raced to her backyard, shouting for the suspect to come out.

She said the man came out with his arms raised and told police: "I'm done."

The three officers were killed and two others injured about 7:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. ET) Wednesday. The officers, all from the Codiac Regional RCMP, were shot after responding to a call about a man with a gun, police said.

They were identified as constables David Ross, 32; Fabrice Gevaudan, 45; and Douglas Larche, 40.

The two injured officers are "recovering well," police said at a Friday morning news conference.

"It will take time to heal, but together we will get there," Snowman said.

During the search through city neighborhoods, residents had been told to stay inside with doors locked or had been prevented from returning home. People driving by a police checkpoint early Friday cheered for officers in live video on CTV.

"We have a combination of elation and happiness over this arrest and at the same time sadness over the great loss these families have suffered," Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc told CTV, referring to the slain officers.

A motive in the shootings remains unclear.

A Facebook page that appeared to belong to Bourque contains numerous postings from gun-rights groups, anti-police sentiment and song lyrics.

"Ask yourself, would you fight for the future of your children or grandchildren, or your family and friends sons and daughters? The answer is: no you're too stupid to know what to fight for, cause we're already losing the silent war you don't wanna believe is happening," an April 7 posting reads.

The last update to the page was made hours before the shooting and quoted a Megadeth song. Below it, after the bloodshed, a friend posted a message: "You knew this wasn't the answer."

An image from the Times and Transcript newspaper showed a man in camouflage with a bandanna around his forehead carrying an assault-style rifle, with another weapon slung over his shoulder.

The suspect appeared to have a tactical shotgun on his back with a collapsible stock and shotgun shells strapped to his bottom, said NBC law enforcement analyst Jim Cavanaugh. He also appeared to be carrying a sniper rifle, possibly .308 caliber, and a detachable magazine, he added.

Moncton is a city of about 70,000 people three hours up the coast from the border between Canada and Maine.

The last Mountie to die by gunfire, according to an honor roll on the RCMP website, was Constable Douglas Allen Scott, who was shot while responding to a call for assistance involving an impaired driver on Nov. 5, 2007, in Kimmirut, Nunavut.

Two years earlier, four constables were shot to death by a deranged suspect near Mayerthorpe, Alberta, the honor roll says.

CHRISTINNE MUSCHI / Reuters

Flowers and candles are laid out in front of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police station in Moncton, New Brunswick, on Thursday.

First published June 5 2014, 9:45 PM

Gil Aegerter

Gil Aegerter is an editor-producer who came to NBC News in November 2007. Aegerter is responsible for reporting for NBC Newsâ€™ investigations unit and in that role has written about online election fraud in Florida, encryption software for terrorists, solutions for glitches in the Obamacare website and financial woes of small towns that bought into the Prairie State coal-fired power plant in southern lllinois. Aegerter also serves as a news editor and producer of NBCNews.comâ€™s cover.

Aegerter joined NBCNews.com from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, where he was news editor. In that role, Aegerter was responsible for editing, layout design and production of the news sections.

Prior to his work at the Post-Intelligencer, he was news editor at the Wilmington Star-News, a New York Times-owned newspaper in Wilmington, N.C.; was a sports copy and layout editor at the San Diego Union; and was assistant news editor at the Anchorage Times in Alaska. He also was a researcher for NBC Olympics for Games in Atlanta; Sydney, Australia; Salt Lake City; Athens; and Torino, Italy.

Aegerter is a member of the Online News Association and the Society of Professional Journalists.

A graduate of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Aegerter lives in Brier, Wash. He and his wife, a Zimbabwean native, have two children.